Continental Divide!!!!

A big event happened today. We crossed the Continental Divide. For cyclists, that means that if you are one side, you roll down the hill to the Pacific Ocean, or if you are going in the other direction, you roll downhill to the Mississippi River, and across, eventually to Atlantic Ocean, if you are so inclined. And we are so inclined. But what they don’t tell you is another story.

We spent the night in Lincoln, Montana, famous among other things as the home of Theodore Kazinsky, the Unabomber. He used to come to the library right across the street from where we stayed to work on his manifesto. And when he wanted to mail one of his bombs to someone whose technology he disagreed with, he would catch a bus right by our campsite and post the letter bomb from some other city. But all that is ancient history. So too is the 850 pound grizzly bear that was hit by a semi. The bear is now on display at the Lincoln Forest Ranger cabin.

While in Lincoln, we discovered that our hostess for tonight’s stay Great Falls could no longer host us. So we put the American Legion to work, and they landed us in a Great Falls house owned by a local artist, Alma Winberry. The house is like a gallery … one that has no space left on the walls. Everything becomes an object-d’art.

Anyway, back to the cycling. We crossed Rogers Pass, about 18 miles outside of Lincoln, with minimal effort, and fooled ourselves into thinking the rest of the day would be a breeze. After all, the profile map showed a downhill route all the way. Well, let me tell you—the people who make profile maps are like weathermen and politicians, except you can’t watch their lips to see if they are telling a lie. At least not until you blow the map up to an enormous size (sorry … had Ted Kozinsky excited there, for a moment). From the summit of Rogers Pass, there are about five miles of fast downhill, then you go up about a dozen rolling hills, each one steeper and longer than Rogers Pass, or at least it felt that way. And at about mile 80, we turned onto the frontage road that leads eventually into town only to discover a 30-40 mph side wind that had us riding our bikes at about 45 degree angles to keep from being blown over. For my Hawaii bicycling friends, it was like doing Hanauma Bay on a very windy day, only for about 15-20 miles, and without the ocean scenery to go with it. Not fun.

So tonight, we are exhausted. Tomorrow, Pat will get to have company in the support vehicle because Ryan, who broke his wrist and had surgery a few months before the bike ride, is having numbness issues and needs to rest his hand. The rest of us are just exhausted, so whether anyone else opts out of tomorrow’s 59 mile ride to Stanford, Montana, remains to be seen. One of the local legionnaires, Barney (who looks a bit like Popeye), when asked about the likelihood of a tailwind, said “Idaho blows and North Dakota sucks, so most of the wind blows towards the east.” We’ll find out.

The service area for most cell phone providers sort of fizzles out at various times over the next several hundred miles across eastern Montana and North Dakota, so there may or may not be full-sized blog updates over the next week or so. I’ll try to get some news posted, especially over 4^th of July, when we’ll be in Lewistown, Montana with just the second day off on our bike trip across America.